Charles XV of Sweden

Charles XV & IV
Karl XV in the mid-1860s
King of Sweden and Norway
Reign	8 July 1859 – 18 September 1872
Coronations	3 May 1860, Stockholm 5 August 1860, Trondheim
Predecessor	Oscar I
Successor	Oscar II
Born	3 May 1826 Stockholm
Died	18 September 1872 (aged 46) Malmö
Burial	Riddarholmskyrkan, Stockholm
Spouse	Louise of the Netherlands
Issue	Louise, Queen of Denmark Prince Carl Oscar, Duke of Södermanland
Full name Carl Ludvig Eugen
House	Bernadotte
Father	Oscar I
Mother	Josephine of Leuchtenberg
Religion	Church of Sweden

Charles XV & IV also Carl (Carl Ludvig Eugen); Swedish: Karl XV and Norwegian: Karl IV (3 May 1826 – 18 September 1872) was King of Sweden (Charles XV) and Norway (Charles IV) from 1859 until his death. Though known as King Charles XV in Sweden (and also on contemporary Norwegian coins^[1]), he was actually the ninth Swedish king by that name, as his predecessor Charles IX (reigned 1604–1611) had adopted a numeral according to a fictitious history of Sweden.^[2]

Biography

An equestrian portrait of Charles XV, painted by Carl Fredrik Kiörboe, circa 1860

Statue of Charles XV in Stockholm

Adjutant Daniel Nordlander (upper left), with Adjutant Fritz von Dardel, Ordonnance Officer Ferdinand-Alphonse Hamelin, General Henri-Pierre Castelnau, King Charles XV of Sweden and Prince Oscar, future King Oscar II of Sweden, at the International Exposition (1867) in Paris, France.

He was born in Stockholm Palace, Stockholm, and dubbed Duke of Skåne at birth. He was the eldest son of King Oscar I and Josephine of Leuchtenberg. He was given his first officer's commission in 1841 by his grandfather, Charles XIV John. After his father's accession to the throne in 1844, he was made a chancellor of the universities of Uppsala and Lund, and in 1853 chancellor of Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. On 11 February 1846 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.^[3]

The Crown Prince was Viceroy of Norway briefly in 1856 and 1857. He became Regent on 25 September 1857, and king on the death of his father on 8 July 1859. As grandson of Augusta of Bavaria, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden and Charles IX of Sweden, whose blood returned to the throne after being lost in 1818 when Charles XIII of Sweden died.

On 19 June 1850 he married in Stockholm Louise of the Netherlands, niece of William II of the Netherlands through her father and niece of William I of Prussia, German Emperor, through her mother. The couple were personally quite dissimilar; Princess Louise was in love with her husband, whereas he preferred other women. His well-known mistresses included the countess Josephine Sparre, Wilhelmine Schröder and the actresses Hanna Styrell and Elise Hwasser, the latter the most celebrated actress in Sweden during his reign, and the Crown Prince neglected his shy wife. On the other hand, his relationship to his only daughter, Louise, was warm and close.^[4]

As Crown Prince, Charles' brusque manner led many to regard his future accession with some apprehension, yet he proved to be one of the most popular of Scandinavian kings and a constitutional ruler in the best sense of the word. His reign was remarkable for its manifold and far-reaching reforms. Sweden's existing communal law (1862), ecclesiastical law (1863) and criminal law (1864) were enacted appropriately enough under the direction of a king whose motto was: Land skall med lag byggas - "With law shall the land be built". Charles also helped Louis De Geer to carry through his reform of the Parliament of Sweden in 1866. He also declared the freedom of women by passing the law of legal majority for unmarried women in 1858 – his sister Princess Eugenie became the first woman who was declared mature. ^[5]

Charles, like his father Oscar I, was an advocate of Scandinavianism and the political solidarity of the three northern kingdoms, and his friendship with Frederick VII of Denmark, it is said, led him to give half promises of help to Denmark on the eve of the war of 1864, which, in the circumstances, were perhaps misleading and unjustifiable. In view, however, of the unpreparedness of the Swedish army and the difficulties of the situation, Charles was forced to observe a strict neutrality. He died in Malmö on 18 September 1872.^[6]

Charles XV attained some eminence as a painter and as a poet. He was followed on both the thrones of Norway and Sweden by his brother Oscar II.

In 1872, Charles XV had controversial plans to enter a non-morganatic marriage with the Polish countess Marya Krasińska through the assistance of Ohan Demirgian, plans that aroused opposition both in the royal house and government and which were interrupted only by his death.^[7]

Issue

By his wife, Louise of the Netherlands, Charles had two children, a son who died in infancy and a daughter who married the King of Denmark. The early death of his only legitimate son meant that he was succeeded on the throne of Sweden by his younger brother Oscar II.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Louise Josephine Eugenie	31 October 1851	21 March 1926	married, 1869, Frederick VIII of Denmark; had issue including Christian X of Denmark and Haakon VII of Norway.
Carl Oscar Vilhelm Frederik	14 December 1852	13 March 1854	died in infancy

Charles also sired an illegitimate son, Carl Johan Bolander, (4 February 1854 - 28 July 1903), the father of Bishop Nils Bolander^[8] and daughter, Ellen Svensson Hammar (28 October 1865 - 1931), and it has been widely rumored that he had many more extramarital children.^[9]

No subsequent king of Sweden to this day is Charles' descendant. However, his descendants are or have been on the thrones of Denmark, Luxembourg, Greece, Belgium and Norway. A few weeks before Charles' death, his daughter Louise (then the Crown Princess of Denmark) gave birth to her second son. The young Prince of Denmark became christened as grandfather Charles' namesake. In 1905 this grandson, Prince Carl of Denmark, ascended the throne of Norway, becoming thus his maternal grandfather's successor in that country, and assumed the reign name Haakon VII. The present king, Harald V of Norway, is Charles' great-great-grandson, through his father and mother.^[10]

Distinctions

• 990th Knight of the Spanish branch of the Order of the Golden Fleece (1855)

Arms

Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway, Duke of Skåne (1826-1844)

Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway, Duke of Skåne (1844-1859)

King Charles XV of Sweden and Norway

Monogram of King Charles XV of Sweden

Ancestry

Ancestors of Charles XV of Sweden

16. Jean Bernadotte               8. Jean Henri Bernadotte                       17. Marie du Pucheu               4. Charles XIV John of Sweden                             18. Jean de Saint Vincent               9. Jeanne de Saint Vincent                       19. Marie d'Abbadie de Sireix               2. Oscar I of Sweden                                   20. Joseph Clary               10. François Clary                       21. Françoise Agnes Ammoric               5. Désirée Clary                             22. Joseph Ignace Somis               11. Françoise Rose Somis                       23. Catherine Rose Soucheiron               1. Charles XV of Sweden                                         24. François de Beauharnais, Marquess de La Ferté-Beauharnais               12. Alexandre, vicomte de Beauharnais                       25. Marie Anne Henriette Françoise Pyvart de Chastulle               6. Eugène de Beauharnais                             26. Joseph-Gaspard de Tascher de La Pagerie               13. Joséphine de Tascher de La Pagerie                       27. Rose-Claire des Vergers de Sanois               3. Duchess Josephine of Leuchtenberg                                   28. Count Palatine Frederick Michael of Zweibrücken               14. Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria                       29. Countess Palatine Maria Franziska of Sulzbach               7. Princess Augusta of Bavaria                             30. Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt               15. Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt                       31. Countess Maria Louise Albertine of Leiningen-Falkenburg-Dagsburg

References

1. Example
2. Article Karl in Nordisk familjebok
3. Lars Roar Langslet. "Karl 4, Konge (1826-1872)". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
4. "Karl 4, Konge (1826-1872)". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
5. Erik Opsahl. "Karl 4 – 1826-72". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
6. Cronholm, Neander N. (1902). A History of Sweden from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. ch 41 pp 289–99
7. Ohan Demirgian, urn:sbl:17456, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av Carl-Gustaf Thomasson.), hämtad 2014-12-13.
8. Sahlberg, Carl-Erik (1994). Nils Bolander: diktare och predikant (in Swedish). Aneby: KM-förl. p. 11. ISBN 91-86112-39-2. LIBRIS 7755088.
9. Lagerqvist, Lars O.; Åberg, Nils; Hjelm, Lars E. (2002). Kings and rulers of Sweden: a pocket encyclopaedia (2., rev. ed.). Stockholm: Vincent. p. 48. ISBN 91-87064-35-9. LIBRIS 8836893.
10. Ole Kristian Grimnes. "Haakon 7". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved September 1, 2016.

Note

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Charles XV.". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links

• The Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav - Norwegian and Swedish Monarchs Grand Masters of the Order
• Family tree of the Royal Norwegian House
• Kings of Norway (in Norwegian)
• Much material on early kings (in Norwegian)
•  "Charles XV.". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.